The present invention relates to track or guideway assemblies for a turn-up or cutting tape used in turn-up and transfer operations in the papermaking industry, and particularly to any such systems wherein a back-up or secondary turn-up tape can be delivered into the track assembly in the event there is a misfeed or other malfunction in the delivery of the primary tape.
Modern paper manufacture is typically performed by producing continuous elongated webs of paper, having widths of up to 330 inches in some cases, which are wound onto spools for subsequent processing, storage, transfer or the like. The spooling operation for the paper web occurs at high speeds, in some cases as high as 8000 feet per minute, and in order to maximize production by minimizing downtime, when a spool becomes full it is desirable to immediately sever the paper web and transfer the newly formed free edge of the web onto an empty spool without stopping or slowing movement of the web. To accomplish this it is well known to utilize a turn-up tape, usually having a pressure-sensitive adhesive applied to one side, that is fed through a slotted track or guideway assembly that extends across the paper web. When severing is desired, the turn-up tape is extended from the discharge of the track into a nip roller or similar mechanism for grabbing the end of the turn-up tape, which is then pulled from the track slot and drawn tightly across the web, thereby severing the paper web and securing the free edge onto the empty spool.
Turn-up tape delivery assemblies for delivering, guiding and actuating turn-up or severing tapes, typically made of paperband, in continuous paper web turn-up systems are well known. Examples of such systems are shown for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,659,029, 4,757,950, 4,783,018, 5,046,675, 5,954,290, 6,305,634, 6,575,395 and 7,875,152, all to Rodriguez, as well as U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,404 to Falk, U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,584 to Taipale et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,725,177 to Bartelmuss et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,416,012 to Wilmoth et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 7,290,732 to Wilmoth et al., the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. Typical traversing track assemblies extending across the paper web have a T-shaped open channel through which the tape is delivered transversely across the paper web. A braking mechanism is provided in order to frictionally engage the tape in order to cause it to be drawn out of the track slot and onto the paper web after the tape has been secured to the new spool or axle. The channel typically terminates with a curved transitional section having a particular configuration for directing the end of the cutting tape so as to attach to the spool, often to the axle of the spool, utilizing various known mechanisms or methods, such that the combination of this attachment and the braking by the braking mechanism causes the tape to be longitudinally folded and drawn from the slotted track, thereby cutting the web and pulling the new leading edge onto the empty spool.
It is not uncommon to encounter situations where there is a misfeed or other failure in the delivery assembly or mechanism for the turn-up tape, which necessitates halting the system to provide a secondary or replacement tape, which results in lost production time. It is an object of this invention to provide a system wherein a secondary or auxiliary paperband-type turn-up tape can be immediately delivered to the spool in place of the malfunctioning primary tape or paperband, the tape delivery assembly or system comprising a guideway track body having parallel dual paperband pathways capable of delivering either a primary and a secondary tape as required. It is an object of this invention to provide such a system having different embodiments wherein the secondary tape may be fed manually or by a powered delivery mechanism, wherein the secondary tape may be initiated manually or automatically in response to the malfunction of the primary tape, and wherein the system may be provided with a release liner removal mechanism to automatically remove a release liner from the secondary tape as it is advanced through the guide track assembly. These and other objects not explicitly expressed above will be apparent from the disclosure to follow.